7. The Rose
Chapter 7
The Rose
“ I t wasn’t my fault.”
“Then whose fault was it?”
“Goddess, Naomi, a chimera drops from the sky and you believe it has to be someone’s fault? How does that make any sense?”
“Words have power, Marcus, and you spoke the possibility into existence!“
I ignored the twins’ squabbling as best I could and sent up a prayer thanking the goddess we were almost there. I blamed Lucas for our poor luck with the chimera. It could only be the world’s way of reprimanding us for mocking his sage advice at our departure.
We’d passed through the iron gates of the Iolite Academy grounds a few hours after we – or rather, I – had dispatched with the chimera, and in that time I’d wished the chimera had slain me no less than ten times. It would’ve been a small mercy to save me from listening to my blathering travel companions a moment longer.
I was tired, I was covered in blood, and I wanted a bath, a meal, and a bed – in that order. The one bright spot in my otherwise stormy mood was seeing the spires of the stone campus peeking over the next hill.
Well, that and the change in scenery from the dreary swampland we’d been traveling in. The cobblestone road we were on had lanterns, just beginning to glow, floating on either side of it. Behind them was a plush forest of burgundy-topped trees; I had never seen anything like it. It was stunning, but its full beauty would be lost to me until I’d eaten and bathed, or at least when I had less frustrating company.
Finally, we were passing under a stone archway that led to a grand courtyard. Vines grew along the walls and extended up beyond my sight toward the towers above us. At the center stood an ornate fountain and I ignored the memories of the mist falling onto my skin, threatening to pull me in. I pretended not to smell the phantom ash flooding my nose. I didn’t think of charred bodies or guilty consciences from events unknown. Instead, I smiled.
I smiled because beyond the fountain, reclined on stone steps, leading to a pair of wooden doors, was a familiar man with golden hair and honey-brown eyes smiling up at me. He gave a languid stretch as he rose and crossed the courtyard to meet us. He lifted a hand to stroke Isis’ mane.
“Isaac.”
“A man could die of starvation and thirst, waiting for you, Briar Lennox, but I must say, the view when you arrive is always worth the wait.”
“It’s the blood, isn’t it? It really brings out the color of my eyes. It makes for a striking sight, I’m told.”
The corners of his mouth rose.
“More like it brings out the violence in them, but yes, it’s a striking sight all the same.”
He held out his hand to me, and I took it while dismounting my horse. As soon as my feet were on the ground, he pulled me into him for a tight embrace.
“I missed you,” I said into his ear.
“I missed you too, Bri.” I reveled in the comfort of his scent—burnt sugar and rum—before I addressed the obvious problem before us.
“He’s not here.” Isaac’s arms held me tighter.
“No. He’s not here.” I pretended that that didn’t hurt. Instead, I dug my face deeper into the crook of his neck for a moment longer.
“You think they’ll remember we exist anytime soon?”
“Unlikely.”
Isaac’s chest shook against me, and he stepped back to wave at the nonplussed twins. The three of them spent a moment exchanging greetings and inquiring about each other’s well-being, but this simply wasn’t the time for idle chatter.
“Isaac.” He turned back to me. “Where is Grayson?”
He rubbed a hand along the back of his neck, and looked at the ground, saying nothing.
“Isaac.”
“He sent me instead.”
“Yes, I noticed that. What I want to know is why. Stop stalling and tell me what’s going on.” He exhaled deeply and finally looked up at me, something came to pity shining in his eyes.
“He wants you to abdicate your position as Luna.”
The world went silent.
She’d be a liability to us all.
I knew Grayson Pierce didn’t believe in me. I knew that even with everything I’d done, everything I’d proven in his absence, it wouldn’t be enough. I knew all of that. So why did I feel like someone pulled the ground from under me?
Then the silence was broken by the twins’ curses.
“That fu –”
“How could he –”
“Disloyal bastard.”
“When I get my hands on him, I swear I’m gonna–”
“Enough.” I raised a hand in the air.
They stopped talking.
“Explain.” So Isaac did, and my blood heated with each new word he spoke.
“He thinks I’m going to lose?” I chuckled, but the sound held no humor. “What must Grayson think of Logan if he knows I can win against the Beta of our pack but believes I don't stand a chance against a teenager at school?”
“Isn’t Briar technically a teenager at a–” Marcus whispered to his sister, but Isaac spoke over him.
“Kenna is strong – very strong. He just doesn’t want you to look weak in front of the pack if you lose the challenge, and no one wants a Pack Rite “
“You mean he thinks I’ll make him look weak, right? She may be strong, but we both know I’m stronger than her.” I was stronger than all of them.
“He’s trying to protect you.”
“And yet he sent you to do the dirty work on his behalf, instead of coming himself.” Isaac didn’t contradict me.
“And you?” I asked him, praying that I already knew his answer “Do you want me to step down?”
“Never.” There was no hesitation in his response. No waver in his voice. No break from his gaze to mine. Grayson’s opinion meant nothing. He meant nothing. Isaac saw me. He believed in me. He mattered, and he was with me.
I swallowed the ball of emotion building in my throat, squared my shoulders, and commanded, “Then take me to him.”
The funny thing about confronting someone who’s wronged you is that sometimes practicality forces you to wait. Horses needed to be stabled, watered, and fed. Belongings needed to be unloaded–though I’d kept my knapsack with me when we handed the rest of our bags to the attendants. Washrooms needed to be visited. In my hurry to get the inevitable confrontation over with, I’d chosen to forego scrubbing the remnants of my fight with the chimera from my skin. Other things simply couldn’t have waited.
A choice that, unfortunately, resulted in more than one stare as we strode through the halls searching for Grayson. Apparently in the hour Isaac had been waiting for my arrival, the Alpha had relocated from the study hall where he’d bade Isaac to do his bidding.
“Are you planning to explain the blood at some point?” Isaac leaned in and asked as we passed a small alcove with a spiral staircase. It was equal parts eerie and intriguing. I was definitely exploring it later. “I’m all for experimenting with your style, but I do draw the line at poor hygiene. At least use dye instead of actual bodily fluids.”
“Chimera,” I answered with a wave of my hand. “You know they pour blood like a fountain when you cut off one of the heads.”
“And somehow you are the only one bathing in it? What, are the twins more careful than you?“
I snorted as we turned a corner into a window-lined hall. “Yeah, they were more careful. Careful not to leave the carriage.”
Marcus and Naomi immediately gave their excuses and explanations for why hanging back was the only logical choice they could’ve made. Isaac’s uninhibited laugh rang through the corridor, and a wave of warmth washed over me. Despite the unease that grew with each step that brought me closer to finding Grayson, I smiled.
I’d missed this.
Isaac’s departure had broadened an already gaping hole from learning the truth about Grayson the year before. On the rare occasions the twins weren’t driving me to the edge of my sanity with their bickering they were decent company. One on one I may have gone so far as to say they were fun , but they weren’t family. They weren’t home.
I wrapped my arm around Isaac’s side and rested my head on his shoulder.
“I’m glad to be here with you, my friend.” Even if it meant seeing Grayson and pretending a pang didn’t still shoot through my chest when I pictured his dimpled smile. Stupid dimples. “Just think of all the quality time we’ll have now that we’re roomies. Will you braid my hair in the mornings? You know it never looks as good when I do it myself.”
I didn’t know why but someone else doing your hair felt a million times better than doing your own. It was a fact of life. Even if the Luna suite hadn’t been rudely occupied at my arrival I would have trekked to Isaac’s room to ask him to do it for me.
“Are you sure that I’m the best person for you to stay with?” Isaac asked hesitantly.
“I haven’t even seen the room yet and you’re already trying to kick me out of it?” I huffed, picking my head up from its resting place. “I’ll have you know I am a fantastic roommate. You don’t actually have to braid my hair every day. Maybe on special occasions it would be–”
“No, that’s not what I mean. Wouldn’t it be wiser if you were staying with someone like, I don’t know, Naomi?” he asked and rubbed at the back of his neck.
“You bite your tongue.” I glanced over my shoulder to make sure she hadn’t heard the suggestion from where she and Marcus followed a few feet behind us.
I cared about Naomi. I’d lay down my life to protect hers like I would anyone else in the pack, but I best appreciated her in small doses. Sharing a room was not a small dose. Thankfully her attention was focused on a passing fae male. I suppose he was attractive enough, but the female walking next to him was the more interesting of the pair. I’d never seen someone with hair the color of a sunset.
“I just think,” Isaac started, pulling my attention back to him, “that some people will find it inappropriate.” I laughed, but it trailed off when his expression remained perfectly serious, if not a little exasperated.
“You’re serious?” He nodded, and I asked, “Isaac, do you feel uncomfortable with me staying with you?”
“No, of course not,” he said easily.
“Then who cares what anyone else thinks?” I paused, then added, “And given I’m about to unseat a Luna from her pack–without the support of its Alpha–I doubt people will be talking about much else.”
He hummed in agreement, and we fell into a comfortable silence as we wound through the stone halls. I should’ve been mapping out the labyrinth of buildings as we went, but was too distracted by my impending reunion with Grayson. The main campus grounds couldn’t have been more than a few square miles, but we’d surely explored every inch of it by the time we pushed through a glass-paneled door into an outdoor common area. My breath caught in my throat as I took my first step over the threshold. Don’t be a coward, Briar, I told myself, he’s just a man. He has no hold on you.
I saw him before he saw me.
Grayson was smiling. Broadly. It was a bright, uninhibited smile, that boasted of joy and a clear conscience. He sat at the head of one of the stone tables scattered throughout the quad surrounded by a group of people–my new pack mates. I didn’t spare them more than a glance. I kept my focus on Grayson. He still hadn’t noticed me, but the woman next to him twirling a dagger between her fingers was watching me with an impassive face and a calculated gaze.
I held her stare. If she expected me to look away first, she’d be disappointed. A corner of her mouth drew up, and she turned to Grayson to gesture my way with her blade.
His smile fell when he saw me. I told myself it didn’t hurt.
But it did.
The stares of the students gathered around him bore into my skin, but I didn’t drop his gaze as we approached. I kept my pace unhurried and steady even as the rate of my heart pounding against the walls of my chest was anything but. I hated myself for noticing that he looked good–really good.
At home, I’d managed to avoid him after his first return by volunteering for out-of-territory assignments or faking an illness. I’d mastered giving shame-driven excuses disguised as honorable coincidences. In the three years since he left, he’d only grown more handsome. His jawline seemed sharper, his body more muscular. His inky hair was slightly tousled like he’d run his hands through it a few too many times.
“You have nothing to prove to him.” Isaac spoke the words so low, no one else would be able to hear his muttered reassurance. “You outrank her, and you’re the rightful Luna of this pack.”
I was the rightful Luna. I had nothing to prove–to Grayson or anyone else–but I would prove it anyway. I’d prove it a hundred times over if necessary.
We stopped less than five feet from Grayson, and he still hadn’t spoken a word to any of us. I tilted my head and let my eyes rake over him from head to toe.
On the surface, he looked comfortable, unbothered by our arrival, a picture of complete control. The only tell he couldn’t hide from me, was the vein, pulsing rapidly against the skin of his neck. If he wanted to play the dismissive silent leader, I’d let him. My first order of business wasn’t with him, anyway.
It was with her.
The woman who’d alerted Grayson to my presence was no longer smirking, but beaming as she looked between us.
I turned from him to the now-beaming woman beside him whose gaze alternated between us. “I’ve been informed you’d like to issue a challenge.” She inclined her head. “Go ahead. I will hear it.”
Naomi protested behind me, but I didn’t address her. If she thought I planned to abdicate my position with so small a fight, she was even dimmer than I’d thought. Thankfully, Isaac shushed her before she could continue.
“I’ll need your full name and rank to issue it.” Her voice was almost lyrical. Between that, her near ethereal beauty, and her propensity for dagger twirling I would be tempted to befriend her. At least I would if she hadn’t been trying to usurp me.
“Briar Lennox, Beta of the Othniel pack.” Her head drew back an infinitesimal amount, and a few gasps rang from the pack members around us. I looked to Isaac and gave him what I hoped was a ‘what the Hades is going on’ look. He grinned sheepishly at me. I pointedly avoided looking at Grayson, whose stare was still burning the side of my face.
“Lennox,” she drawled, “Not Pierce?”
“No. Not Pierce.”
“And you are the Beta of the Othniel Pack?”
“Were my name and rank unclear? Do you need me to repeat them for you?”
Her smile only grew as she looked at Grayson, who was clenching his teeth. I hoped they cracked.
“No, what you said was quite clear. I’m afraid it’s someone else who’s caused the confusion.”
Grayson narrowed his eyes at her but still said nothing. Maybe he’d lost his tongue in the years since we parted. “Oh well. It doesn’t matter if you’re the Beta or a Pack Princess, my challenge stands.” I’d ask Isaac about that princess comment later.
“Then say the words.” She didn’t bristle at my command.
“I, Makenna Lenoir, Enforcer of the Hallewell Pack, challenge you, Briar Lennox, Beta of the Othniel Pack, for the honor of Luna of the Iolite Academy. Do you abdicate this position to me, or do you accept my challenge and invoke the Pack Rite as our customs demand?”
“I accept your challenge.” And pandemonium broke out around us as Grayson finally found his voice.